


Wild Frontier

by RunawayDeviant



Category: Jurassic World (2015)
Genre: Gen, Owen absolutely turns his back on the raptor cage, Owen is alpha to the first five letters of the alphabet, but that's okay, missy we'll make a rex out of you, such as 90s pop and affection, the finer points of living with a human alpha, there is nothing scientific or behaviourally accurate in this fic and i'm not even going to try, yes i named her Alice
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-14
Updated: 2016-02-13
Packaged: 2018-04-04 08:19:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 8,398
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4130863
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RunawayDeviant/pseuds/RunawayDeviant
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The five of them turned to face him - him, specifically, not the rest. His girls and their new best friend.</p><p>Owen stood up.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Down The Oryctodromeus Hole

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: This is basically crack with a semi-serious tone.
> 
> My friends and I just ended up feeling sorry for Indominus in the end, so here I am making everything better for her. Yes, I know she's a psychopathic franken-dino. I don't care.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oryctodromeus was a small, herbivorous, burrowing biped that was basically the dinosaur equivalent of a rabbit.

They were _talking_.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, as he and a team of highly trained gunmen crouched before the chirruping dinosaurs, he was screaming very loudly. It was a sound that he'd never allow to escape, no matter how many times Echo play-pounced at him or Blue stared long and hard at him, calculating the pros and cons of challenging his Alpha status.

The forefront, though, was full of wonder. The five of them turned to face him - him, specifically, not the rest. His girls and their new best friend.

Owen stood up.

" _What the fuck are you doing?_ " Vic yelled down his earpiece, obviously watching the feed from wherever he was, " _You're gonna get yourself-_ "

"Hey girls," Owen said, calmly, laying his gun against the log he'd been using as cover. He stepped over and out in front of them - playing his part as their confident leader - and took a few casual but slow steps forward, "Who's this?"

Indominus, instead of simply snapping him up like she had half a dozen other people, made a low vocalisation that Owen knew really fucking well. He almost laughed - she was confused.

"Yeah, I know, it's pretty weird being out of the pen the first time," he agreed, "It's a big, scary world out here."

Indominus clearly had no idea what was going on - but Blue did. It was the same tone, similar words, as when he'd first introduced her and Echo to the world outside their cage, several months before Delta and Charlie had been born. He'd used the same tone again with them, and probably would again if anymore sisters were born.

Blue turned, beautiful, wonderful creature that she was, and let off a rapid litany of barks and chirps.

"I feel so bad for you," Owen muttered as Indominus replied. Blue said something else and their resident monster abruptly focussed back on him.

"Hi," he said, and against every instinct and feeling inside his frantic, terrified prey-brain, he reached towards her.

" _Oh my god,_ " Vic hissed in a strained whisper.

"I think," Owen said, taking a slow step forward, telegraphing his movements so that she could decide if she didn't like them, "I'll name you Alice. Because you are officially in the rabbit hole, and we're definitely all a little mad around here."

Alice twitched minutely backwards, but paused as he took another step. The only humans she'd ever seen moving towards her had been accompanied by loud noises that hurt her hide. The others had been staring at her through clear barriers or running away. This one had a tiny hand up, talking quietly and flanked by small-things-like-her that made reassuring sounds.

She lowered her head, more to get a better look than anything else, and the soft-two-leg slowly took another step. He laid a hand on the span of scales between her eye and the tip of her snout and slowly dragged it down and across, to just below her nostril and rubbed.

Owen grinned at the pleased noise Alice made. His girls, weirdly, liked the very ends of their snout and around their noses scritched - and he was very thankful that he knew that, or he might be very dead.

"What in god's name-?" Barry muttered behind him.

Owen wasn't in a position to make the snarky comment he wanted to, but he did continue scritching Alice's nose, using nails now. The huge hybrid rumbled, though her eyes had moved past him to examine the others - they weren't offering pets, and they were holding the noise makers.

"Guns on the floor," Owen warned, "She's watching you."

There was a fairly long pause, and then the gun started going down. Alice rumbled.

"Home base, girls," Owen muttered.

Blue barked, reinforcing his quiet command, and Alice stood up to her full height, looking around them and cocking her head.

"I trust you," he said, pointing a finger at Blue. She made the chittering noise that she used when replicating his laughter, the sign that all was well, and made to take off into the brush. Alice abruptly roared, and Blue looked back and barked again, Echo, Delta and Charlie joining in, agreeing that it was home time, and disappearing into the trees. Alice followed.

"Back to the Raptor Cage, people. And if anyone of you so much as think of firing, you're gonna have more than just Alice to worry about."

"What, the raptors are on her side?" one of the nameless mercs asked, "I though you were their leader?"

"No," Owen said as he switched on his bike, "I'm saying that if you shoot her, I'll shoot you."

* * *

 

His girls got home only a few moments before he did, hovering around the door but not entering.

"Yeah, she's not gonna fit in there," Owen grinned as he dismounted, "Round up, we'll sleep out here tonight."

"What do you mean, "we"?" Claire asked, staring, horrified, out the cracked open window of her remote veterinary unit, "You're going to _sleep with them_?"

"I do it, sometimes," he shrugged, "I used to a lot more when they were younger."

"You're such a badass!" the older of her nephews – Zach – called from the window behind her head.

"He's insane," Barry said, rolling his ATV up to the van, "Come on, we should return to the resort."

"What about-"

"I'll be fine," Owen waved them off, "Alice needs to have some things explained to her, and I'll hang the girls' headgear up on the fence so the command centre can monitor in case anything goes wrong."

"Alice?" Claire breathed, "You _named_ it?"

"She needs guidance," Owen said, "Me and my lovely assistants are happy to provide it. You all go home - I'll take over here."

" _Owen, I could_ kiss _you for salvaging this mess-_ "

"Vic, if you come near here I will set a horde of angry dinosaurs on you," Owen snapped into his radio, making Charlie look up with interest, "You try and take my pack, I'm not happy. You try and take Alice, you'll be dead whether I interfere or not."

" _You're going to train her, too-_ "

"We are going to teach her what she is," Owen interrupted, "But my girls don't like you - your smell or your personality - and she doesn't know how _not_ to act on that dislike yet. She'll eat you, no questions asked."

Vic scoffed, " _Not if you do your job._ "

Owen pulled out his earpiece and unclipped his radio, walking over and shoving them through Claire's window. "Go back to the resort. Get moving on building an enclosure - one that she can see out of, with plenty of room to run. Ethics was gonna clap you in irons after I reported that shoebox you were keeping her in."

"You were going to report me?" Claire asked, horrified. Echo following him over may have had something to do with that.

"A rabbit should have a hutch big enough for at least two hops in all directions. A carnivore should be allowed to reach top speed - big cats need twelve hundred square feet minimum _per animal_. Alice was barely managing twenty steps, let alone a proper run. She's huge, Claire - you had her in a concrete box with no enrichment besides a meat hook. No wonder she wanted out."

Claire's mouth was opening and closing, and Echo started copying the movement, which made Claire snap her mouth shut. Echo's snap was infinitely more intimidating.

Owen turned away, patting Echo's flank as he went, and made his way to where Charlie and Delta were playfully nipping and snapping at each other, while Blue dug at the ground to make herself a dirt pit to lie in.

Alice stood to the side, eyes sliding between the humans still warily standing around and the raptors.

"This isn't what I meant when I said round up," he grinned, and his girls all looked to him, "Front and centre."

They all lined up, more because they wanted their cameras off than because they were obedient. The other humans began to clear out, and Alice relaxed as they left. Owen collected four sets of headgear and hung them up on the enclosure, as promised, before turning to his pack plus one.

"I know it's a bit early for bed, but we have had a _big_ day," Owen said, "Alice, come on. Round up."

Alice blinked. She already knew he called her "Alice" but really didn't understand the concept of "round up", any better than his girls had at first. Blue barked and turned in her dirt pit a few times before settling down. Owen repeated his instructions, and as Echo, Delta and Charlie made themselves comfortable, Alice realised what they wanted. She crouched, using her disturbingly articulate hands and arms to lower herself to the ground a couple of metres away. Owen would've loved to know where she got the arms from - his raptors had hands, yes, but their arms just didn't have that range of movement. She lay, legs tucked up like a cat and arms crossed and watched them.

Owen sat down beside Blue, cautiously moving back to see if she'd let him lean against her. Tonight, she did, and he made himself comfortable. Delta shuffled over to stick her huge head on his lap, and Charlie put hers on his shins. Echo grudgingly took up position at his side, unhappy at missing a spot resting on him, and he obligingly rested a hand on her head.

"Tomorrow," he sighed, "we're gonna go hunt. Were gonna teach Alice to _eat_ what she kills, not to kill what she doesn't want to eat, and maybe see if we can find somewhere to stick you while they build your new home."

Blue chirruped, asking him to please shut up if he wanted them to sleep. Owen laughed quietly, and his girls softly repeated their imitation. To his alarm, Alice also gave it a shot, before laying her head down.

Tomorrow was going to be another long, _long_ day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wild Frontier is the name of a song by The Prodigy, by the way. It's fairly appropriate.


	2. Eat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alice learns how to eat, and Vic finally gets it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uh, hi? Where did you all come from?
> 
> I was expecting like, three people to jump on board the "Indo is totally a redeemable character" bandwagon, so welcome all ye unexpected fans! Gather around the flaming tar pit while I weave you a tale of a very confused mega-predator and his five dinosaur sidekicks- I mean-
> 
> (P.S. There's some non-violent gore in this one, but it _is_ a tale about a huge meat-eating dinosaur, so...)

The next morning, Owen woke up moving.

He leaned forwards slightly. He leaned backwards slightly. And again. And again. Rhythmic, like-

He sat up straighter and turned to look at the huge, sleeping dinosaur behind him.

Blue, disgruntled, stood from the spot where she'd been trapped between them and padded away into the enclosure, likely to find sleep in her usual ditch. Alice had shuffled closer at some time in the night, and Blue had obviously allowed her presence - and had clearly regretted it. He couldn't imagine she'd gotten much shuteye, being pushed back and forth all night.

Alice herself, meanwhile, was still fast asleep. Blue had been squashed against her stomach, which along with her ribcage was inflating and deflating very noticeably in time with her breathing. Her ridged tail was loosely enclosing Owen and the pack in a dino-circle.

Delta made a soft noise and adjusted her head, and he absently petted her as he examined his new charge.

Her arms were crossed under her neck, and her chin was jutting out in front of her. Her back was covered in ridges that looked fairly bony, and her mouth was _freaking huge_. He knew that it could open almost like a flip-top - no way had she gotten the gyrosphere in her mouth otherwise.

'Definitely some snake in there,' he thought speculatively, 'Also explains the thermoreception. And some sort of cephalopod, because of the camouflage. I have no idea how she avoided the thermal cameras though.'

Echo rumbled and lifted her head. Her snout almost smacked him in the face as she turned to observe her surroundings, his nose only saved by her amazing spatial awareness.

"Morning, Echo," he murmured, placing a hand on her neck.

She replied with a soft chirp and stood, stretching her legs. The movement fully woke Delta, who immediately rose and began to hop between one leg and the other, getting her blood moving. Charlie made a fairly pathetic noise, but stood up as well. She'd never been a morning dinosaur.

"Well," he groaned, stretching his own stiff legs, "I guess the cat's out of the bag. They thought I was just nuts before, now they know that you actually _listen_ to me."

The pack had no idea what any of this meant, of course, but Owen often spoke words that they didn't have to listen to. They finished shaking out their kinks, and then started looking around for Blue. Charlie anxiously lingered by him, watching Alice and apparently not trusting her to be alone with him.

"I'm coming, I'm coming," he huffed, standing.

Alice rumbled lowly.

He turned to find the eye facing him was open. Their moving around must have woken her.

Owen collected his screaming internal voice and shoved it in a corner.

"Good morning, Alice," he said gently, calmly, confidently.

Alice lifted her head off the floor and rumbled again, turning to stick the front of her very deadly snout in his face. Her nostrils flared, taking in his scent, and he held very still as Charlie started barking and calling.

Within a second, Blue, Delta and Echo came careening out of the enclosure, Blue barking and screaming her disapproval. Alice reared up, and they had a very fast, very angry (on Blue's side, at least) conversation of barks and growls before Blue hissed one final time. She walked around Owen, checking he was okay, and finished the inspection by rubbing her cheek against his throat – something she did to affirm her position and mark him as a fellow pack member. Her sisters repeated the gesture, though not the inspection. Alice, after much cajoling and another talking too, also followed suit. Owen nearly went flying, and there was some more yelling from Blue as he righted himself.

And without further fanfare, they had a new pack member.

"Well," Owen said as Alice did her best to rub against all of the sisters' necks (hard, when her head alone was almost as tall as them), "I guess you _are_ the youngest."

The impromptu initiation out of the way, and Alice looking fairly cowed from her scolding, the sisters all turned expectantly to him.

"Cameras first," he said, much to their annoyance, "HQ wants to watch, the creeps."

They suffered through his ministrations with little complaint, though Delta turned her head this way and that, hating the rig the most. As she danced about, trying to make herself more comfortable, Owen checked his bike and it's fuel gauge and deemed it acceptable. He kicked it to life and all the girls came to attention.

"Gyrosphere valley, ladies," he said, knowing that they knew what he meant, "Stay close, not fast, no hunt."

They deflated at the last two instructions – what was the point of going, then? - but were happy enough to go for a run, and Delta finally stilled in anticipation. He revved, whistled and they were off. Alice paused for only a fraction of a second before following, looking back once to see if he was coming.

Owen responded by zipping past her, eliciting a roar from her and a round of raptor laugh-chitters from the sisters.

'Well, Owen, this is what you wanted,' he thought drily, 'A cohesive pack with room for growth. Wasn't expecting the growth to be quite this big, but be careful what you wish for and all that.'

* * *

 

The sight of half a dozen dead juvenile Apatosauruses gave the sisters a fairly long moment of pause. Velociraptors killed to defend themselves or to eat – if they were unthreatened or full, they didn’t bother. So many dead carcasses, while enticing, put them on edge – someone would be coming back for these.

Said someone was standing behind them, waiting for whatever they were going to do today, having no idea that what she'd done on these plains had been very unnatural behaviour.

"Breakfast," Owen said, adding a whistle and riding down into the valley. The girls hesitated before cautiously following, on the lookout for whomever the vast quantity of meat actually belong to.

"Eat up," he said, coming to a stop before the first of them, "Yours."

Blue warbled questioningly.

"Yours," Owen repeated, "Safe."

That was the magic word, and they descended on the carcass, still keeping a vigilant eye on their surrounds. Owen wondered just how much of this smörgåsbord he would be able to call dibs on – there were several other predator species on the island, but only the T-rex, the Metriacanthosaurus and his pack actually preferred the meat of land animals – the Suchomimus and Baryonyx were both predominately piscivores, as were both of the flying reptile species.

"Alice," Owen called, adding a whistle, just to get her in the habit of responding to it, "Follow me."

He moved a little forward, pausing and whistling again before continuing along. He turned back and she was, thankfully, following.

"Very good!" he called, leading her to the next carcass. Special treatment it may be, but between the sisters there wouldn't be enough meat on the first body for Alice to eat as well – and she would most definitely not be allowed to eat before they were done.

She pulled up beside him and the carcass, and then just stood there. "Yours," Owen said, pointing at the feast before them.

She stared at him, uncomprehending.

He stared back, equally nonplussed.

"I can't believe this shit," he muttered, getting off the bike and pulling the biggest knife he had out of its sheath, "Let's make a carnivorous dinosaur, full of killer instinct, and raise it so that doesn't even know what food is unless it's hanging off a hook! We're scientists, we know what we're doing!"

Muttering to himself, he proceeded to butcher the animal's side, eventually ending up with a gigantic flap of flesh that he struggled to pull away. From the other carcass, Blue barked a command and Charlie ran over, helping him pull. Helping Owen lift and pull was something they'd done before, mostly when exploring the island and moving heavy objects around their enclosure.

"Thanks, Charlie," he grunted, and she chirruped and returned to her own meal, looking suspiciously at Alice as she went.

Alice was now scrutinising the Apatosaurus' ribcage – that was something she recognised.

He pointed once again, " _Yours_ ," he said firmly.

'Eat your kill or so help me, girl…'

She leaned down and began by snapping out an alarmingly large number of ribs and standing to happily crunch down. Owen was sprayed with bone bits and blood and marrow, but given that his arms and front were veritably awash with blood from cutting up the meat, he couldn’t bring himself to care.

"I _hate_ whoever decided that keep you in that box was a good idea," he growled, slumping against his bike and praying that his hot water was working back home.

* * *

 

Returning to the enclosure meant returning to reality.

Alice had eaten an enormous, though not unexpected, amount of the Apatosaurus, learning quickly that fresh meat was much nicer than whatever they pulled out of the freezer for her. Keeping her from going out to find more was going to be _fun_.

When they arrived, Vic was waiting for them, the idiot, and was treated to a chorus of screaming raptors and a confused, rapidly angering hybrid.

"Leave, you moron!" Owen snapped, holding his arms up in a "stop" signal to his girls, "They don't like you."

"You can keep them in line-"

"Vic, they listen to me because they want to, because they feel like it," he groaned, "If you stand here for much longer, they'll break ranks and you'll be mince meat."

"I just want to discuss everything that's happened. Maybe we can go to your office and talk this through."

Owen rolled his eyes and started going from raptor to raptor, switching off cameras and taking off the rigs, murmuring reassurances to each of them as he went.

"Owen, you should understand this. Having animals like this in the armed forces-"

"Vic, they're not dogs," Owen said, dropping the rigs and coming back to stand between the two sides, "They're not domesticated, and they only do what I ask them to because I can be very convincing. All they want to do is hunt, eat the spoils of said hunt, and terrorise any creature they don't know that happens to walk into their territory."

Okay, so the last was a bit of a fib. But it definitely applied to things they didn't trust, and as Blue came to stand next to him, growling like a chainsaw, only Vic was failing to notice that he fell into that category.

"If this keeps up, I'll find someone else to train them!" he threatened, deciding to cut the "we're buds, right?" routine, "Someone who actually sees how valuable they are."

Beside him, Blue abruptly went silent.

Owen stiffened.

"Vic, slowly back towards your car," he commanded in a low voice.

"What? They just calmed down!"

"They're some of the best ambush predators to ever evolve, Vic. If they're quiet, it means they're on the hunt. And unless I'm mistaken, she's looking straight at you."

Vic, finally, understood. His breath caught, and Owen knew that his heart rate had spiked.

Alice rumbled inquiringly, instinctually understanding that something had changed.

"Where's Echo?" Owen asked calmly.

Vic's mouth fell open, his eyes blown wide with fear, "She's not behind you," he whispered.

"I'm watching your back, Vic, and your sides. Walk backwards to the jeep, get in, and drive as fast as you can back to the resort," Owen instructed, "Order the gates closed behind you, and don't open them until I call you with the all clear."

"Okay," Vic said, slowly backing up. Blue stared, hard, not taking her eyes off him.

He made it to the car in one piece, Echo still nowhere to be seen, and got in. Owen heard the doors lock, and then the car started and took off.

As it disappeared into the trees, Echo stepped out from around the side of the enclosure and Blue chittered a laugh-sound. Owen turned and grinned, clicking his tongue; "Well done, ladies. We've defeated him, for now."

Alice was utterly confused, glancing in the direction that the car had headed off and clearly wondering why they weren't running after it.

"Eyes on me," Owen ordered, and they all turned to face him, Alice a little delayed. "Inside, girls."

The raptors chirped, but didn't more, Blue looking speculatively at Alice.

Owen rolled his eyes. "Alice, round up."

Alice obligingly turned twice on the spot and settled down. Blue huffed approvingly and led her sisters to the bigger dinosaur, settling down nearby.

Owen watched Charlie position herself so that her sisters were between Alice and her, and wondered if she was actually nervous, or just insecure in her pack position.

His girls comfortable and ready for their midday nap, Owen sighed and headed for the small office that was attached to the enclosure. He wanted to know when Claire was going to have that pen ready for him.

* * *

 

As it turned out, the new enclosure that they'd been building in preparation for a future Dilophosaurus pack was just what the Indominus ordered.

"I've got everyone that can hold a screwdriver working to finish it, as we speak," Claire informed him, sounding harried, "The doors are going to be manual until we can get the contractors in, which might take a week or two. God, Owen, if I'd known that it was going to protest that much to the enclosure we built for it-"

"If you'd built her an appropriately sized enclosure to begin with, she wouldn't have killed the bulk of the ACU," Owen cut in, "Why did you ever think that a fifty-foot mega-predator would be happy in that thing?"

"No one objected!"

"Did you know how big she was going to be when you ordered it built?"

"Of course we did-"

"Then it's on you, Claire. People have died - it's very much on you." She sniffled, and Owen sighed, "You're fixing it, that's what matters."

"I'm probably going to lose my job," she said, "You know they might decide to put it down, being a man-eater?"

"They'd better not," Owen said flatly, "She didn't even know that those dinosaurs she killed yesterday were appropriate to eat. She has no idea what she's doing, and it's fallen to me and the girls to teach her. I'm not going to let her get shot because she was raised in a shoebox. It's like blaming a toddler for smacking someone when his parents never taught him that hitting is bad."

"I'll let you be the one that argues that point," she sighed, changing topics, "Zach and Gray are itching to see you. They think you and the raptor squad are the coolest thing ever."

"I'd wait until I can get Alice in an enclosure before introducing them," Owen snorted, "They normally only scare the newbies for fun, but I'm not going to take chances."

"Of course," she agreed, "They're not leaving the resort until the Indominus is under lock and key."

"Alice," Owen corrected, "Until the large, young, mostly innocent dinosaur with a name and feelings is in an appropriate enclosure."

"Yes. Until...  _Alice_ is housed properly. With a name that cutesy, people are going to be twice as scared when she roars."

"She's adorable," Owen informed her, "The most confused baby I've ever met."

"Only you would call a fifty foot killing machine an "adorable baby"."

"I'm the raptor guy. I think everything with sharp teeth is cute. It's why I asked you out."

"Excuse me!?"

He chuckled, and hung up without explanation. Claire would probably yell at him later, but it was worth it to hear her frazzled.

For now, though, actual work called. He turned to his computer and started on the least fun part of his job.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The thought process was that when Owen was taking off their camera rigs he was gesturing to the girls to scare Vic shitless. They happily obliged.
> 
> Clever girls.


	3. Sleep

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm a horrible person, please forgive me for making you all wait. I'd been working on other JW fics and suddenly it'd been like a month.
> 
> Un-beta'd because I wanted to give you guys something.
> 
> -distant apologetic crying-

It was as if the day before - twelve people dead and a number more wounded - had never happened. His girls all fed and content for the moment, he made a number of calls, sent a number of emails and wrote a very strongly worded memo to Vic about not being an idiot around a group of six-foot murderesses and their several-feet-taller friend.

On finishing his work, he made himself a cup of the sweet tea that he refused to tell anyone he owned and then sat on the step of the office. Charlie, apparently not having slept at all, got up the moment he appeared and padded over, settling back down with her head in his lap.

"C'mon, baby girl," he chuckled quietly, "You're okay."

She chittered, equally quiet, and placed her cheek firmly against his stomach.

He put a hand on her head and rubbed the top of her head between her eyes as he drank his tea. "If Alice tries to take your spot, I'll yell at her," he promised.

Charlie warbled a reply to his nonsense noise and closed her eyes.

His eyes rolled skywards, "Every dinosaur on their island is a freaking drama queen."

He finished his tea and simply sat, soaking up the sun with Charlie warming his lap, and planned the coming night's activity.

"Who do you think would win in a race?" he asked quietly, "Delta or Alice?"

Charlie tilted her head to crack open an eye and look at him, and made the noise that, to them, represented Delta.

"I thought you might say that," he said, "Go to sleep. We'll go racing tonight."

She rumbled happily and settled down to rest. Her Alpha would wake her if anything happened.

* * *

This was the tableau that Barry rode into when arrived two hours later. Owen had roused a fairly grumpy Charlie to grab a book from his desk, and was reading with it resting on the raptor's head.

Blue had roused, blinked at Barry's approaching ATV, and promptly gone back to sleep. Alice had watched a little longer, but had followed the Beta's lead.

"You're covered in blood," he observed, dismounting, "Hello, Charlie."

Charlie twitched her tail, but otherwise didn't move.

"I haven't had the chance to shower yet," Owen shrugged, "Wiped off my arms with a towel, but you know that never does the job."

"What were you massacring?"

"Carcass. Alice didn't realise it was food. Those ACU guys she ate were probably reflex swallows."

"Poor thing," Barry muttered, "If Blue promises not to play games with me, I'll keep watch."

"Blue?" Owen called, "I need to go home - Barry stays, I'll be back soon."

Blue lifted her head and pondered this, before agreeing and barking an order. Charlie stood and shook out her kinks, and Owen stood and stretched, grunting as his spine popped back into place.

"We'll be back in half," Owen said, "Don't let them blow anything up."

"I'll do my best."

* * *

When he and Charlie arrived back, Barry had taken Owen's spot on the stair, and was reading his book.

"They slept like babies," he informed Owen, glancing at Charlie, "Aren't you going to be tired, Charlie? Normally you sleep the most."

Charlie huffed and rumbled, and Owen answered for her; "She's nervous around Alice. They'll get there, just give them time."

"Mm. Claire's got every able body sticking the Dilophosaurus enclosure together. It's not going to be secure enough to hold a toddler, but as long as there's bars around the five of them, our human friends are a lot more comfortable."

"You know, if they'd stop twitching every time one of the girls so much as yawned, they wouldn't have to deal with this."

"They see sharp teeth and the prey-brain engages," he shrugged, "Most people don't have a handle on it like you do. Hell, I don't, and I've been in this business longer than you have."

"A gun in your face is a little more scary than the cinnamon roll curled up over there."

"Yeah, right. Reflex swallows they may have been, but she ate people. Any chance she'll develop a taste?"

"None of the other predators on the island have developed a taste for human, and there've been plenty of incidents. The first pack killed for revenge, I think, and those that came after because we were easy, and in their territory. And with Isla Sorna, well..."

"Stole the eggs."

"I would've been pissed too."

"And then we shot all the ones here and built a new pack with human bonds," Barry grimaced. The cleansing of the island hadn't been total, but general consensus was that the raptors had to go - they were hyper-aggressive towards humans. Owen hypothesised it was a cultural thing, as none of them were old enough to have been part of the first park's pack. They'd been that pack's offspring, and if Grant and Sattler's accounts were correct, all four members of that original pack had been killed anyway.

"People destroy things they're scared of," Owen eventually shrugged, "I'm going to take the girls for a run tonight. Think you could let the Valley keepers know to bring the herds in?"

"Consider it done," Barry nodded, "And remember to shower tomorrow."

"Yeah, yeah."

* * *

The girls slept the rest of the day, as was their habit when there was no one harassing them into chasing pigs or performing tricks.

Charlie managed to doze off around three, half-stuffed under his desk with his feet resting on her as he perused Facebook and tried not to fall asleep himself.

He heard them stirring as the sun started to touch the horizon, already hidden by the trees, and he roused himself from his social media stupor to get ready for their race.

He stepped out onto the veranda, and quietly said, "Blue." The Beta obligingly hopped up and trotted over, already awake. "You're amazing. Run, Gyrosphere Valley, sundown. Get everyone ready?"

Blue chirped her understanding and turned back to her sisters and Alice, to nudge at them until they woke up.

A chirp from the office alerted Owen to Charlie's presence, the sleepy dinosaur attempting to rub at her left eye futilely.

"How did you girls survive in the wild?" he sighed, coming over to get the sleep out of her eyes himself.

She nuzzled him affectionately when he was done, and proceeded to follow him to his bike. "You're never going to leave me alone ever again, huh?"

She huffed.

"Well, it was nice having privacy while it lasted."

* * *

 

 As it turned out, Delta was indeed the faster runner.

"How?" Owen laughed, watching the blue-ish raptor preen and twirl as Alice stood nearby, breathing heavily and looking disgruntled.

"Aw, Alice, it's okay," he consoled, patting her ankle, "Delta might have the brain of a pigeon, but she has the legs of an ostrich."

Alice, terrifyingly, chittered a low laugh.

Owen stared up at her, and muttered, "Well that's disturbing."

Once Delta was done preening, his girls all gathered around his bike and started demanding a real race – one where they all bolted across the field, him and his bike included, to determine who was fastest.

Owen, obviously – he could outrace most _cars_.

"Okay, okay, let's get this over with," he chuckled as he was pushed about by four snouts, "First to Huge-Ass Tree wins, last has to wear the hat."

A great deal of horrified shrieking met his ears, and he grinned as he waved at them to line up.

"On your marks," he called once they were ready, "Set. Go!"

* * *

Alice in a dunce hat was the funniest thing Owen had ever seen, her put-out expression completing the image.

The picture went viral on the park's intranet in an hour.


	4. Play

It was another four days of wandering around the restricted zone before the Dilophosaurus enclosure was "secure". So, it had no gaps in the walls and the door could shut, but didn't lock. It was good enough for the humans, so his girls and Alice were moved in - and Owen went in with them, to help them settle in.

Settling in involved his bike being left behind in favour of an SUV loaded down with exorbitant amounts of meat, the girls' favourite toys, a cordless CD player, several discs, and a really big, meaty bone that Owen intended to use as a reward for whoever won their tag competition.

He lead them into one of the more forested sections of the enclosure and portioned out their lunchtime snack, settling on the hood of the car to eat his own.

"Rules," he announced, getting their attention even as they dug in, "One: I'm not playing today."

Echo looked up and loudly shrieked her disapproval.

"No bike," he shrugged, "No bike, no play."

She glared at the car for a moment before returning to her food.

"Two: tag, no teams."

Understanding chirps from all but Alice. She'd get the gist of it soon enough.

"Three: no hurting, please. Be nice. Four: longest not tagged gets the bone."

Blue looked at him with that gleam in her eyes, the one that tells him, "I am absolutely getting that bone". She probably would - she was very good at raptor-tag.

"Five: music starts, game starts," he grinned, and Delta eyed the CD player, "Album ends, game ends."

Charlie cheeped.

"Yes, we're using Britney. I know you girls."

The girls all tittered approvingly, and Alice - apparently having given up trying to understand - resolutely continued eating.

"You'll get there," he informed her with a grin.

* * *

 

Lunch was quickly reduced to a few scraps of meat here and there, too small to bother snapping up. The girls had eyes on him the second they finished, and Alice followed suit.

"Teach her, please?" he grinned, "Don't take too much advantage of the fact that she has no idea."

An affirmative chirp was all that was offered, and he rolled his eyes.

"Echo is "it", return when you've been tagged so I can confirm. Ready?"

Excited shrieks.

"Set. Go!"

He hit play on the CD player and four raptors ran off into the brush to the tune of "Baby One More Time", leaving a very confused Alice standing and staring at the strange noise maker.

"Go on," he said, "You can't learn how to play if you're standing here marvelling at Britney's genius. Shoo."

She watched the player for a little longer, and then huffed and turned to disappear into the forest.

Less than five minutes later, Delta escorted her back into the clearing, chirping and chittering what had to be an explanation.

"So, who's it?" Owen asked once they stood to attention.

Delta chattered and poked Alice's leg with her snout.

"Thought so. Did you teach her?"

An affirmative chirp, and a disgruntled noise from Alice, that Owen just had to laugh at.

"Go on then. Don't hurt anyone, okay? You're a big girl, you could step on one of the others."

Delta huffed, unimpressed by his lack of confidence, and disappeared into the brush. Alice whined, fairly pitifully.

"Aw, come on," he said, holding out a hand, "It'll be fun when you figure out the rules."

Alice nosed his hand, which covered maybe four of her scales, and he scooted forward slightly on the hood to scratch her - still terrifyingly huge - snout.

"Besides, you can change colour. Next time we play, just go camo mode and you'll kick ass."

She blinked at him, uncomprehending, but still made a more contented noise. At the very least, she probably recognised that he was trying to comfort her.

"Go on, go play," he grinned, pulling his hands away, "Go catch someone. Next time, I'll play "Eye of the Tiger" for inspiration."

She snorted, most of his rambling making no sense, and turned to leave.

"Good girl!"

It took a little longer than average for Alice to make her first catch, but she came back with Delta - who looked appropriately annoyed at having been gotten back so quickly. Charlie was only caught three quarters of the way through the album, and Echo was caught halfway through "E-Mail My Heart". Owen didn't see his Beta until the music stopped and they all returned.

Blue was declared winner - No surprises there. Delta was fastest, but Blue was the wiliest. She hefted the bone - a little too big for her mouth - and then put it down, staring critically at it.

Then she used her sickles to crack it open to get at the marrow.

"You're terrifying," he sighed as he watched the other girls stare jealously at the prize.

Blue didn't deign to respond, though by her snort, she'd heard him.

"They grow up so fast," he murmured to himself.

Blue looked up him, muzzle lightly coated in bloody marrow, and cocked her head. Owen waved her back to her food, and tried not to dwell on how it would feel when she inevitably sunk those claws into _him_.


	5. Love

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Enjoy this extremely late Christmas chapter.

"Girls!" Owen called as the gates shut with an ominous thud behind him. "Paging the Grady Gang!"

A round of laughter from the other side of the gate was immediately drowned out by the loud, enthusiastic reply from Alice, who broke through the tree line with alarming speed. Blue, directly behind her, screamed a threat, and the Indominus slowed to a more sedate pace and allowed Blue to overtake her. The Beta presented herself to Owen with great airs, and all he could do was roll his eyes and scratch the side of her neck.

"Good morning, Blue," he said, "Have you been patrolling?"

She warbled the call for "on alert", and Owen frowned.

"Who's been disturbing you?" he muttered to himself.

Behind the rest of the sisters, lowest in the hierarchy, Alice whined, low and sad.

"Alright, alright - everyone come here and get your pets before Alice gets jealous."

He moved from raptor to raptor, giving them their morning dose of affection, before going to Alice, who helpfully lay flat on the floor. Her rub down was more time consuming and less thorough, if only because there was so much area to cover. The raptors were utterly unhelpful, climbing all over the larger dinosaur like a jungle gym. Alice, rather than minding, seemed to enjoy the massage from their claws and rumbled contentedly.

Owen perched atop her brow once he was done, and wondered how Claire's morning was going.

"Badly" had been the answer for the last few months. Despite being assets manager, she really had no animal handling experience or hands-on knowledge of animal ethics. Ethics was something she only thought about on paper - and if the ethics committee approved it, she signed the paperwork. That was about the only thing saving her from jail time - her ignorance. Most of the ACU dead or horrifically wounded, dozens of tourists injured, some gravely, even her own assistant dead, and that was just the human cost. The only people getting more heat than her were Hoskins and Wu, who had allegedly coerced the ethics committee into approving the subpar conditions that Alice had been kept in. They were already neck deep in legal, and it was now coming to light that a greater InGen operation had been taking place within the park for years. Owen was hoping for a ten year minimum, each.

Owen was, of course, facing his own set of problems.

The raptors could understand him - he'd been lying to the Park's management, lying in his own research, for years. But they were his charges - the moment he'd realised just how intelligent they all were, he'd done everything in his power to cover it up. No dissection table for these raptors.

Beyond that, he'd allowed them to be brought outside of their cage. Without muzzles or talon sheaths, or any sort of protective gear for the humans around them. Had things gone differently, his girls could've added to the death toll. But Hoskins had had a hand in that, too - he'd been the one to force Owen into letting them out, after all. And the girls hadn't hurt a hair on a single man's head.

And they'd brought home Alice, whose only other fate at that point had been eventual death from the muzzle of a very big gun. That had saved both lives and money - and even at a time like this, the only thought in some people's heads was "save the share prices!".

"Patrol," he called, and the raptors assembled from their various places on and around Alice, ready to go.

Alice stood too, and Owen was hard pressed to contain his shriek as he was lifted twenty-five feet into the air atop her head.

"Alice!" he yelled once he was capable of speaking without squeaking, "Why?"

Alice, very unhelpfully, warbled and turned to head off along the fence.

"Someone had better be recording this!" he heard Barry yell as he was carried away. The raptors, bar Blue, were excited beyond belief, chirping and screaming and calling at him as they moved along. Delta went so far as to leap up onto Alice's strong tail, unbalancing the Indominus for a moment and nearly sending Owen flying. On getting her footing, Delta skittered up Alice's back to seat herself behind Owen.

"What is the matter with you all?" he sighed, "I thought I raised raptors, not horned grebes."

Blue, unimpressed by the antics of her sisters, warbled "on alert". The playful atmosphere evaporated instantly, and the girls took up a V-formation to continue their patrol seriously. Delta dismounted, and Owen settled in for a long ride - this patrol could take hours if the pack was nervous about the security of their borders.

* * *

 

Owen did his own patrolling once the pack had let him go. The inside of their enclosure had gotten the all-clear, not a leaf out of place. The outside he checked himself.

He was thorough, of course - he wouldn't be able to forgive himself if his negligence got the girls hurt - but he focussed particularly on the section of fence line that had gotten the girls most edgy.

His rifle was hung loosely over one shoulder for ease of access, a pistol already in his hand, and he scanned the underbrush, waiting for anything to appear. After a moment, his eyes focussed on a strangely shaped bush, and he cautiously moved forward to check it out. On closer inspection, it was no bush at all, but a tarp camouflaged to look like one. His eyes narrowed and he lifted the tarp, fully expecting a weapons cache or something equally sinister.

What he found made him laugh, loudly. A warning shriek sounded from within the enclosure, and he whistled back to let them know he was there. A chorus of beckoning calls erupted from the rest of the pack, and Owen replaced the tarp and headed for the airlock. He'd say goodbye again before returning to his bungalow, as an apology for scaring them.

* * *

 

"When was the last time you took the girls for a run?" Barry asked, oh so casually, "It's been harder with Alice, yes? To go outside the enclosure for runs?"

"Been about a month," Owen confirmed, equally casual, "I was thinking I'd take them out on Christmas Eve, bit of a present."

"Ah, sounds good," Barry said, his expression pained.

"Or, you know, I could take them out tomorrow night. They really have been itching for a run."

Hope flared in Barry's expression, before he narrowed his eyes; "You know!"

"I only found a random stash of tinsel and baubles," he shrugged, "Nothing to suggest it was your doing. Or what it's for."

"Yes, well, I'm certainly not going to be the one to tell you."

"Next time hide it further away - the girls led me to it."

"I will keep that in mind. Please make sure your run lasts a few hours."

"Sure."

* * *

 

The next evening, the huge doors of the combined Raptor-Indo enclosure opened. Tourists in the area were being kept behind hastily-erected invisible fences. Attempts to remove them from the area were futile - the second they'd caught wind of a group of deadly carnivores they, for some reason, had decided that they  _had to be there_.

Owen could only really look on in disbelief, as he was greeted with a crowd of awed park guests.

"Barry, are these people aware that a large number of teeth are about to run past them, possibly grabbing a couple of snacks on the way?"

" _Tourists_ ," Barry replied, " _They won't leave, but no one's willing to call security to eject them because of the bad press it could cause_."

"It'll be worse if one of them gets eaten," Owen muttered.

" _I never said the pencil pushers in the compound were any smarter than the tourists_."

Owen rolled his eyes and revved his bike. It had much the same effect as a whistle, and his girls rallied behind him. They were brought up short by the sheer number of people – they'd never seen so many at once – but a sharp whistle brought there focus back to him.

"No snacks, please," he said. Blue barked an order – no hunt, follow Alpha – and Owen took off.

The crowd cheered.

Alice roared.

The crowd screamed, broke ranks and ran for their silly lives.

Owen stopped in case he had to turn around.

The pack, well-disciplined, stared after the running humans with all the bemusement wild animals could produce.

" _Why did they attack Rodeo but not the crowd?_ " Barry wondered.

"Crowd didn’t fall into their territory," Owen answered watching as one woman made use of the distraction and darted past the invisible fence. "You stop right there or it won't be the raptors that get you," he warned.

"I have, um, these," she said, giving the raptors wide berth and coming to Owen. Out of her large and bulky messenger bag she produced five similarly sized pieces of what looked like jewellery, all mother of pearl shells made into very large bracelets. Very large. Nothing else was in the bag, so far as he could tell. "They're like necklaces, and the Indominus car wear hers around her finger? Please have them – they're so beautiful I had to make them something to wear!"

She shoved them into his hands just as the ACU personnel grabbed her, pulling her back to safety with their weapons firmly aimed at his pack.

"Uh," he said, looking from the jewellery spilling into his lap to the girls, "Merry Christmas? Come here."

Blue stepped forward and Owen attempted to fit the choker over her head. Unfortunately, it would move past her eyes. A shame, since she took a liking to the piece immediately. Owen could feel the cameras on him as he beckoned each raptor forward to receive their gifts, tangling them in their talons or carrying them in their mouths. Alice's, against all odds, was the only one that fit. It slipped easily onto her second talon and remained securely in place by virtue of her knuckle.

"Stunning," he said drily. "Come on, girls, lets go for our run already."

Four shrieking calls and a happy rumble answered him, and he led them away into the depths of the Restricted Area.

* * *

 

They returned at dusk, to an enclosure covered in pet-friendly Christmas decorations and non-toxic fake snow. Charlie practically lost her mind, frolicking in the fluffy stuff like a snow dog.

"Every tree has at least three baubles, we made sure," Barry informed Owen proudly as they watched from above while the girls spread out to explore. "Some are filled with food, and we'll get to see if Alice displays altruism, because there are significantly more up at her level than near the ground."

"This is one hell of a Christmas present, Barry," Owen grinned, "They look like they're enjoying it."

Charlie flopped on her side in a pile of fake snow, writhing with joy as if to prove him right.

"Merry Christmas, Owen," Barry said, clapping him on the shoulder, "This is the happiness I think we all deserve, after all the mayhem of these last months."

"I still think we'd be better off feeding InGen's lawyers to Alice – slow their defence-building a little."

"If they start to look like they may win, I will gladly join you in bringing them here."

* * *

 

He loved his girls, he really did. But next time he gave them presents, he swore he'd do it in private. He just _could not_ handle the endless stream of Santa Grady and reindeer-raptor memes he received for the next month.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I absolutely nicknamed the keeper that fell into the enclosure "Rodeo".
> 
>  
> 
> This is the last chapter, of this story at least. There's potential for a sequel, but as I have zero plot in mind, it'll likely not happen. Thank you all so much for your kind words! I hope you've enjoyed this as much as I have. :)
> 
> If any of you have any situations you can think of that involve our intrepid pack and their Alpha, and you'd like me to write them, feel free to hit me up. I'm always up for prompts!


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